GamingBolt recently caught up with Andy Nealen who specializes in computer graphics and is a consultant at Hemisphere Games. Andy also handles his day to day responsibilities as a professor of Game Engineering and Design at NYU Poly.

Speaking to GamingBolt, Andy believes that mobile and tablet platforms are destined for a different kind of gaming experience.

“I think the platform is destined for a different kind of game- like I don’t think, if we’re talking touch enabled devices, which, that’s what phones are – they went from being keypad devices to being touch enabled, and I don’t think we’re going back to keys, and I think touchscreens are here to stay. And if anyone has seen a child with an iPad, they know the reason why- they just gravitate towards them so naturally, because it’s so tactile, and they just understand how to use it immediately.”

He also explains that despite the touch screen functionality of modern mobile phones there is no way they can replace the controller.

“But the thing these touch screen devices can’t do is, they can’t replace a controller. There’s just no universe where anyone will ever play something like Street Fighter on an iPad (laughs). That’s just not gonna happen. ”

However Andy think that it’s possible the rendering tech can catch up with consoles although visuals will always be better on the PC.

“Now in terms of rendering capability, I have to say it blows my mind how high performance the current generation tablets are. It’s just absolutely mind boggling when I look at any of these demos we see from Epic or Nvidia or Apple, that just showing off what Unreal looks like on a tablet. I look at that, and I’m like, ‘this is insane!’ If you’d told me this is what mobile games would look like when I was a teenager, I’d have told you you’re a big fat liar. So in terms of rendering, I think it’s possible that mobile devices catch up. Obviously, it always depends on- I mean, the reason consoles aren’t as high end and high performance at rendering as PCs is because there’s a money, a financial constraint. They need to be marketable to a large group of people, so obviously, they’re never gonna cost- I mean, there are graphics cards that cost more than consoles! So, that will always exist, and because of that, graphics will always be better on high end PCs.”

What are your thoughts on this matter? Do you think mobile and tablet graphics will eventually catch up with consoles?

Let us know in the comments section below and stay tuned for more news and updates.

Phones are just starting to get 4gb of RAM. Graphics chips in a phone is crap. The only really powerful tablet out there at the moment is a surface. Ipad has a terrible GPU as well.

J.j. Barrington

Render a static image close to that of consoles? Perhaps.

Perform MOVING graphical scenes on the same level as what consoles are capable of? Not a chance.

Have any mobile devices managed to surpass last generation yet in terms of graphical performance? And I don’t mean rendering a still image, but actual environments IN MOTION.

Pretty sure the answer to that is still a resounding No.

Off topic, at least this article is all one page.

The truth-ier

the theoretical performance of a mobile chip in no way shape or form compares to real world performance. the 360 version of elder scrolls, modern phones dont have anything like that, or even close. And as for tablets, well the most powerful ones are the surface, and PC type tablets…but even those dont stand up to consoles. Regular PC will always beat consoles, the only thing holding PC games back is that they take into account all the lower end models, if games were developed for only the high end then nothing x1 or ps4 does would look anywhere close as good.

andy

Don’t forget that it would only be top tier devs that would be able to take advantage of such endless power. Plenty of devs out there working for years and still manage to make garbage on PC exclusives like The Sims 4. Then there are certain game engines that are always going to be a ball and chain around devs necks that just won’t build their own proprietary game from the ground up to suit their specific genre of game.
For example, even if NFS 2015 was PC exclusive, its still being held back by a game engine clearly not designed for a racing game. 2 games into this gen, the dev who made it could be improving their own actual game engine throughout the years and games they make but they can’t. They can only work with whatever DICE adds to it.

andy

In other completely unrelated news, GTA Vice City Stories, the 10 year old PSP game, is on its way to iPhone and will be the biggest selling legitimate game for the platform since………….GTA Liberty City Stories another PSP/PS2 6th generation console game.

But don’t worry, GTA VI will most definitely be on iPhone with parity the same day it will be on console……. lolz.

Ian Henry

In a way, I doubt this will ever happen but if some company tries to step up the ante on Mobiles then it could be possible but overall, I doubt it will ever happen.

Riggybro

If Sony, MS and Nintendo continue to cheap out on console hardware I can see this happening.

(Some) smart phone brands are releasing cutting edge devices every year – so they getting closer and closer. Meanwhile consoles released are aiming for a cheap price point. Current gen consoles were already a few years behind the eight ball when they came out for example and now specs-wise they will remain static for 5-6 years at least.

It’s irrelevant anyway – the future is 100% subscription/streaming. No more black boxes under the TV!

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J.j. Barrington

You can’t see it happening, because it WON’T happen. Consoles might lag behind powerful- and expensive- gaming PCs, but that’s fine; they won’t do well if they’re too costly to the consumer, or if the companies take too much of a loss. Not being the most powerful things around doesn’t put them behind the eight ball at all.

Smartphones are improving yearly, but they still haven’t approached last generation in terms of graphical capability. There are no games on mobile that look as good as the best games of last gen, and the ones that are closest still aren’t really that close, as far as what they’re doing compared to their console counterparts. And even when they DO approach current gen- let’s just say they could do it in the next two years- they’d still have the issues of power consumption and cooling to consider.

That future you speak of is also more than a decade away, if not closer to to twenty years. And even then, technology won’t be advanced enough to make streaming as latency-free as locally-generated content. Due to the laws of physics, that’s just never gonna work.